Features

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Tuesday offered its first glimpse of its Windows 10 software that it hopes delivers a winning formula for powering tablets and smartphones, along with laptops and desktop computers.

The US software colossus focused on its core business market while unveiling an “early technical preview” of next-generation Windows software slated for release next year.

Microsoft executives said the naming decision to skip right from Windows 8 to Windows 10 was intended to reflect that the new software will be a big leap and not a small step.

While pulling back the curtain on an early technical build of Windows 10, Microsoft heralded the operating system as a blend of what was best in the previous two generations.

“This is what Windows 8 should have been,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said after attending the unveiling event in San Francisco.

“Now, they have the most advanced platform to deal with a BYOD [bring your own device] world.”

An “Insider Programme” for developers who want to dabble with Windows 10 and provide feedback will kick off on Wednesday.

“Windows 10 represents the first step of a whole new generation of Windows, unlocking new experiences to give customers new ways to work, play and connect,” said Microsoft operating systems group executive vice president Terry Myerson.

“This will be our most comprehensive operating system and the best release Microsoft has ever done for our business customers.”

Aimed at businesses

Pressure has been on Microsoft to win over companies that have shunned the current version of Windows, which was radically overhauled to adapt to the booming popularity of computing devices with touch screen controls.

While Windows 8 was tuned into personal lifestyles rich with smartphones or tablets, it was not a hit at companies where people still work using traditional computers with keyboards and mice.

More than a year after its release in late 2012, the number of businesses using Windows 8 were vastly outnumbered by those using Windows 7 and even using the earlier Windows XP, according to market trackers.

The operating system is crafted to automatically adapt to whichever device someone is using, from Xbox consoles and desktop computes to tablets or “tiny gadgets”, according to Microsoft.

“Windows 10 will run across the broadest range of devices ever from the Internet of Things to enterprise data centres worldwide,” the US software firm promised.

Microsoft also said the coming version of Windows will provide developers a converged platform that will allow them to write a single application that can run across the array of devices powered by the software.

Windows 10 will also boast enhanced security, including separating and securing data in ways more resistant to breach or theft.

A beloved “start menu” missed by users will make a comeback, providing “quick one-click access to the functions and files that people use most”, according to Microsoft.

Windows 10 is also designed to make it easier to work using multiple files or applications simultaneously.

The software can also segregate personal and work activities on mobile devices, allowing companies to wipe their information as needed but leave anything else untouched.

Windows 10 is also the first platform to aggressively handle biometrics “up through eyeball recognition”, according to Enderle.

“I had a list of things Microsoft needed to do, and they ticked off everything,” Enderle said of how Windows 10 is shaping up.

“It looks like they really hit on all the elements.”

WASHINGTON — A new battle is brewing over privacy for mobile devices, after moves by Google and Apple to toughen the encryption of their mobile devices sparked complaints from law enforcement.

The issue is part of a long-running debate over whether tech gadgets should have privacy-protecting encryption which makes it difficult for law enforcement to access in time-sensitive investigations.

FBI Director James Comey reignited the issue last week, criticising Apple and Google for new measures that keep smartphones locked down — without even the company holding the keys to unlock the data.

“What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law,” the FBI chief said, warning that law enforcement may be denied timely access, even with a warrant, in cases ranging from child kidnapping to terrorism.

Former FBI criminal division chief Ronald Hosko made a similar point in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, citing a case in which the agency used smartphone data to solve a brutal kidnapping just in time to save the life of the victim.

“Most investigations don’t rely solely on information from one source, even a smartphone,” he said. “But without each and every important piece of the investigative puzzle, criminals and those who plan acts destructive to our national security may walk free.”

Crypto Wars 2.0

Observers who follow privacy and encryption say they have seen this debate before. 

In the mid-1990s, as the Internet was gaining traction, the government pressed for access to digital “keys” to any encryption software or hardware, before abandoning what ended up being a futile effort.

“This is Crypto Wars 2.0,” says Joseph Hall of the Centre for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights group active in both campaigns.

Today, “the main difference is that phones are increasingly deeply personal, containing much more daily life and interaction than a desktop from the 1990s,” Hall said.

Hall argued that giving law enforcement access requires companies to “engineer vulnerabilities” which could be exploited by hackers or others.

“There’s no way to tell the difference between a good guy and bad guy when they walk through the back door,” he said.

Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says the FBI has been making these arguments since 1995, with the same flawed logic.

“We’ve seen this movie before,” Cohn said.

“Regulating and controlling consumer use of encryption was a monstrous proposal officially declared in 2001,” she said in a blog post. “But like a zombie, it’s now rising from the grave, bringing the same disastrous flaws with it.”

In 2013, before the revelations of massive surveillance from leaked National Security Agency documents, the FBI called for broader authority to capture mobile communications which fall outside traditional surveillance, such as Skype and Google Hangouts.

But civil liberties activities say leaked NSA documents suggest that contrary to FBI claims made last year, the government has many tools at its disposal.

“There are an increasing number of places where we leave our digital trails,” Hall said, including in the Internet cloud, where it can be accessed with a court order.

No back doors

Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford University Centre for Internet and Society, said the FBI argument overlooks the fact US tech firms must compete in the global marketplace.

“Global customers do not want backdoored products any more than Americans do, and with very good reason,” Granick writes on the “Just Security” blog.

“Authoritarian countries like Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Saudi Arabia want to censor, spy on, and control their citizens’ communications. These nations are just as able to make demands that Apple and Google decrypt devices as the FBI is, and to back up those demands with effective threats.”

On balance, she said, “the public is more secure, not less secure, with the wide use of strong cryptography — including cryptography without back doors.”

Mike Janke, chief executive of the firm Silent Circle which makes the fully encrypted Blackphone, said the FBI is making a “false cry” against Google and Apple because the law enforcement agency can easily gain access to a phone — through a carrier tap, or location tracking, for example.

Greater privacy, Janke said, comes from the harder encryption on Blackphone, but law enforcement can still track a user’s location as long as the battery is inside.

While a small number of people may use encryption for nefarious purposes, Janke said, “do you sacrifice the privacy and trade secrets of everyone else because of that?”

WASHINGTON — Kids who get treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics before age two face a higher risk of childhood obesity, said a US study on Monday.

The research in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Paediatrics is the latest to find a link between weight problems and antibiotics, which can eliminate bacterial infections but also the beneficial intestinal microflora that colonises the gut.

Experts at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia looked at health records from nearly 65,000 children who were treated at primary care clinics from 2001 to 2013. Those included in the study were followed for five years.

More than two-thirds of the kids studied were exposed to antibiotics before age two. The increase in obesity risk ranged from 2 to 20 per cent and was seen particularly in children who had been treated with antibiotics four or more times by age two.

Those given broad-spectrum antibiotics, which target a range of bacteria, were also at higher risk of weight problems in childhood.

“No association was seen between obesity and narrow-spectrum antibiotics,” said the study, which described the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in children under two as “one factor” in whether a child develops obesity.

The study called for treatment guidelines for common paediatric illnesses that urge limits on antibiotic use and a preference for narrow-spectrum medications.

Inappropriate prescribing and overuse of such broad-spectrum antibiotics have also been linked to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria strains.

In recent years, US health authorities have urged doctors to cut back on antibiotic prescribing, and have also attempted to educate parents that common viruses cannot be cured with antibiotics.

“This study offers another solid reason to more carefully consider the reasons for antibiotic use and avoid it whenever possible,” said Patricia Vuguin, a paediatric endocrinologist at Cohen Children’s Medical Centre in New Hyde Park, New York.

“While the study is robust, it wasn’t able to consider other variables that contribute to the risk of becoming obese, including diet, exercise levels and family history of obesity,” added Vuguin, who was not involved in the study.

“Since the children studied also were exposed to an average of several episodes of broad-spectrum antibiotics, I also wonder if they may have been sicker than typical children.”

The findings warrant future studies that could take into account other factors that influence intestinal flora, including the use of probiotics and breast feeding, said Molly Regelmann, assistant professor of paediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“While, broad-spectrum antibiotic use is not the sole contributor to the rise of the obesity epidemic, the availability and use of these medications certainly coincided with the rise in obesity in the US,” said Regelmann, who was not part of the research team.

“It is somewhat reassuring that narrow-spectrum antibiotics, which are commonly prescribed for common paediatric infections, were not associated with obesity later in childhood, making the point, that targeted selection of antibiotics is ideal.”

NEW YORK — Walking may never become as trendy as CrossFit, as sexy as mud runs or as ego-boosting as Ironman races but for fitness experts who stress daily movement over workouts and an active lifestyle over weekends of warrior games, walking is a super star.

For author and scientist Katy Bowman, walking is a biological imperative like eating. In her book, “Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement”, she suggests there are movement nutrients, just like dietary nutrients, that the body needs.

“Walking is a superfood. It’s the defining movement of a human,” said Bowman, a biomechanist based in Ventura, California. “It’s a lot easier to get movement than it is to get exercise.”

Researchers say emerging evidence suggests that combined physical activity and inactivity may be more important for chronic disease risk than physical activity alone.

“Actively sedentary is a new category of people who are fit for one hour but sitting around the rest of the day,” Bowman said. “You can’t offset 10 hours of stillness with one hour of exercise.”

Last year researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health asked 218 marathoners and half marathoners to report their training and sitting times. Median training time was 6.5 hours per week. Median total sitting time was eight to 10.75 hours per day, suggesting that recreational distance runners are simultaneously highly sedentary and highly active.

Leslie Sansone, creator of the “Walk at Home: Mix & Match Walk Blasters” DVD, said too many people believe that spending gruelling hours at the gym is the only way to fitness.

“There’s this “Biggest Loser” idea out there that if you’re not throwing up and crying you’re not getting fit,” she said, referring to the popular television weight-loss show.

She added that a small study of non-obese men published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise by scientists at Indiana University suggests that three five-minute walks done throughout three hours of prolonged sitting reverses the harmful effects of prolonged sitting on arteries in the legs.

Five kilometres per hour is a good beginning, gradually working to 6.5kph, she said about walking.

Dr Carol Ewing Garber, president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), notes that fitness-walking guidelines of 10,000 steps per day may be too much for many.

“About 7,500 steps may be more accurate,” she said, adding that current ACSM recommendations call for at least 150 minutes of activity each week.

Garber, a professor of movement sciences at Columbia University in New York, said research suggests that even one bout of exercise causes beneficial physiological effects.

But she concedes that walking does not do everything. It is less beneficial for bones than running, and for strength, it is better to lift weights.

“Still,” she said, “If you’re going to pick one thing, research says it should be walking.”

MADRID/SYDNEY — A year after Spain, the sunniest country in Europe, issued notice of a law forcing solar energy-equipped homes and offices to pay a punitive tax, architect Inaki Alonso re-installed a 250 watt solar panel on a beam over his Madrid roof terrace.

“The government wanted people to be afraid to generate their own energy, but they haven’t dared to actually pass the law,” Alonso said as he tightened screws on the panel on a sunny summer day this month. He had removed solar panels from the roof last year.

“We’re tired of being afraid,” he said.

Halfway across the globe, in the “sunshine state” of Queensland, Australia, Electrical Engineer David Smyth says the war waged by some governments and utilities against distributed energy, the term used for power generated by solar panels, is already lost.

“The utilities are in a death spiral,” he told Reuters by telephone while driving between a pub where he helped set up 120 solar panels to cut its A$60,000 ($53,000) annual power bill and a galvanising plant which was also adding solar panels to reduce costs.

In Australia, he said, solar panels have shifted from being a heavily subsidised indulgence for environmentally conscious households to a pragmatic option for businesses wanting certainty about what their running costs will be next year.

“Not many people are doing it because of emissions or the environment,” Smyth said. “It’s about the cost.”

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels constitute the fastest growing renewable energy technology in the world since 2000. Global capacity has exploded from 1.5 gigawatts at the turn of the century to 136 gigawatts currently, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Meanwhile, the price of solar panels has plummeted 80 per cent since 2008 thanks to generous state subsidies aimed at promoting clean energy.

It’s still less than 1 per cent of energy capacity worldwide, but the surge in installations of rooftop solar panels is beginning to hit utilities and their business model of charging customers on the basis of consumption.

Joined by traditional energy companies, they are lobbying governments to reverse decades of subsidies to green, renewable energy such as solar and, in some cases, to tax them.

In Europe, Australia and in the United States, energy companies have powerful lobbies that argue that they form a cornerstone of the economy and provide jobs to tens of thousands. Governments are forced to pay heed and in some cases they have acted.

Slashed rebates

Local Australian governments have slashed rebates for households which feed spare solar energy back into the grid, and approved massive increases to set daily connection fees. In Queensland, Australia’s most solar-powered state, one state-owned grid company just raised daily connection fees by 1,142 per cent while removing per-unit consumption charges — effectively removing the incentive to switch to solar.

Spain’s decree, although never converted to law, would force solar-equipped homes and businesses to connect to the grid and pay a tax on each kilowatt consumed.

Asked when it might be approved, an industry ministry official told Reuters by e-mail: “It all depends on what the Cabinet decides to do in the coming months.”

Nevertheless, the mere threat of the law was enough to ground solar panel installations to a halt in the country. Fewer panels have been installed in Spain this year than any since the early 2000s, renewable energy experts say.

“The draft law was a brilliant move by the government to keep people from going off the grid, delaying competition for the big utilities,” said Cote Romero of renewable energy advisers ECOOO. “They’ve paralysed a whole sector without actually regulating it.”

And yet, households and businesses find solar energy appealing in an environment where utility bills are increasing.

“Current policy is encouraging people to go off the grid,” said Roger Gill, owner of Spanish solar energy company Expert Sistemas Solares.

“Most of our clients right now are small businesses, particularly in the farming and fishing industries, who are fed up and want some stability in their energy costs.”

Although the surge in solar energy may be fuelled in part by environmental concerns, it is not being led by environmentalists. Apple Inc., America’s biggest company, powers its biggest data centre, in Maiden, North Carolina, with the country’s largest privately-owned solar farm which it owns.

Google Inc., America’s third-largest company, gets a third of the power for its giant Mountain View, California, headquarters from its own solar installation.

The record for a country installing solar PV in a year was China, in 2013, with 11.3 gigawatts or nearly a third of global installations. China wants 35 gigawatts of solar PV capacity by 2015 and 100 gigawatts, nearly the entire current world total, by 2020.

A hit where it hurts

Solar’s rapid rise — along with warmer weather, more energy efficient appliances and various geopolitical factors — has pushed down demand for traditional electricity and cut into utilities’ profits across the world.

Earlier this year, German energy giant RWE AG blamed plant closures caused by solar demand for its 2.76-billion-euro ($3.52 billion) loss in 2013; its first annual net loss in more than 60 years. It and the two other German energy companies — E.ON and EnBW — have seen their combined market value dwindle by an average 54 per cent since 2007.

A 60 per cent drop in wholesale power prices in six years has forced Germany’s utilities to book billions of euros in writedowns on their coal and gas plant portfolio.

“The low power prices are leaving a trail of blood in our balance sheet,” RWE Chief Financial Officer Bernhard Guenther said in May, reporting first-quarter operating profit fell by a fifth.

Although US utilities have yet to feel a financial sting from solar’s rise, they are leery of a future in which the burden of maintaining their delivery systems is spread among a smaller number of customers.

Last year, Arizona became the first US state to introduce a solar tax after the state regulator let its main utility, Pinnacle West Capital Corp. unit Arizona Public Service Co., charge 70 cents per kilowatt, or about $5 per month for most households, to those on the grid who use solar.

That is much less than the $100 a month APS wanted, but several other states are considering similar proposals, or have pledged to reform electricity rates to address the rise of distributed generation.

“Public utility commissions are all looking at this change in the distribution system and potential change in the business model of utilities,” said David Owens, executive vice president at Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for investor-owned utilities in the United States.

The experience of Hawaii, which has a far larger percentage of homeowners with rooftop panels than any other US state, offers a window into the challenges other regions may face as they bring more and more distributed generation onto their grids.

Homeowners on Oahu — Hawaii’s most populous island — need to get the utility’s approval before installing solar because some of the island’s power circuits have reached a threshold where it would be dangerous to add more PV without investing in upgrades to the distribution system.

In Australia, Queensland state-owned power network company Ergon reported a 5 per cent slide in household energy consumption in the 2013 financial year. Last month, the country’s No. 1 and No. 2 energy retailers, Origin Energy and AGL Energy, both blamed solar uptake for declines in underlying profit.

Fighting back

So old energy is fighting back.

Germany, the world’s largest solar market following years of generous state subsidies, imposed a levy in 2014 on small businesses which use self-generated solar power — referred to as the “sun tax”.

“Those who protect the climate get penalised, those who harm it get cleared,” said Carsten Koernig, managing director of German solar campaigner BSW.

“Instead of supporting solar power in its transition to become competitive, it is now artificially made more expensive.”

Australia’s Queensland has ruled out a solar tax but promised to re-jig energy pricing so that everyone — solar-reliant or otherwise — pays the same. But that removes the incentive to go solar, and leaves customers at the mercy of later price rises by the utilities.

“Distributed generation [DG] could be the end of utilities as we know them today,” US investment research firm Morningstar said earlier this year. “Utilities’ centralised network monopolies break down when customers become self-sufficient competitors.”

Romero, the Spanish renewable energy expert, said: “Utility companies know that the future is in renewables, but they’re not going to go down without putting up a fight.” 

By Lisa Kiplinger

USA Today (MCT)

You’ve seen them shuffling down the street, eyes glued to four-inch (10.16cm) screens, fingers tip-tapping away. To say that young people are in love with their smartphones would be an understatement: It’s more like they’re obsessed, confirms a new study out by Zogby Analytics.

Almost 90 per cent of Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y) say their phones never leave their sides. The first thing that 80 per cent of Millennials do every morning is reach for their smartphones, and 78 per cent spend more than two hours a day texting, surfing, talking, tweeting and — more importantly for businesses — shopping, banking and more.

“Businesses will ignore this at their peril,” says James DeBello, CEO of Mitek, the company behind mobile bank deposits that commissioned the independent study, “Millennials, Selfies and the Changing Face of Mobile Commerce”.

Companies that don’t speak mobile “are missing the boat”, he says, because young consumers are expecting it, even demanding it. “If you don’t have it, you’re considered old-fashioned, out of date and not a company I want to do business with.”

The study, which surveyed 1,019 people ages 18-34, found that what many Millennials love best about their smartphones is the camera. Almost 90 per cent snap shots daily or weekly, and not just “selfies”. Say, they’re out and about and see a shirt or a stereo they like, DeBello says. They might grab a shot and send it to friends to see what they think — call it shopping by crowdsourcing.

They’re also depositing checks via photo and getting car insurance quotes by shooting a pic of their driver’s licence and sending it off. No need to slog through manually entering name, address, yada yada yada. Millennials love the ease and speed of using their smartphone camera as tool to get things done.

“I think the overall trend we discovered is they still wish they could do more, in fact, they expect it. And they want to do it faster and easier,” DeBello says.

What Millennials are saying about mobile:

• 81 per cent say it’s important for retailers to have high-quality mobile apps.

• 47 per cent access businesses via mobile at least once a day.

• 58 per cent have tried to enrol for a new service or account on mobile.

• 36 per cent have made a decision on where to spend money or switched companies based on what they let them accomplish on mobile

For consumers of all generations what this means is that they can expect to see a crop of new, more sophisticated apps on the way. If Millennials had their way, they’d be able to pay bills by snapping a photo of them (45 per cent), enrol for everything from credit cards to gym memberships using a photo of their driver’s licence (33 per cent) and take some pain out of tax time by inputting W-2’s by photo (33 per cent).

Companies such as Progressive Insurance, Bank of America and Apple are at the forefront of the trend, DeBello says, but that’s only the start. And the mobile trend is being driven by Millennials... perhaps the very dawdlers in front of you on the sidewalk with their faces in their smartphones.

Millennials by the numbers:

• 87 per cent say their phone never leaves their side.

• 88 per cent have or would deposit a check by snapping a picture.

• 60 per cent say in the next five years everything will be done on mobile devices.

• 54 per cent would pay using a mobile wallet.

• 86 per cent say there are still a lot of websites without good mobile functionality.

• 14 per cent wouldn’t do business with a company that doesn’t have a mobile site or app.

A follow-up to Hyundai’s radically styled sixth generation Sonata circa 2010, the new 2015 model year seventh generation is an evolutionary but thoroughly redesigned, made-over new model with significant engineering improvements.

A more conservatively elegant redesign featuring Hyundai’s new Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design language and Modern Premium brand direction first debuted on the Genesis executive saloon of earlier this year, the new Sonata’s design might be less attention grabbing but is more consensually handsome and less polarising.

Launched regionally in Jordan early this month, the new Sonata is being positioned on a slightly more up-market trajectory and features considerable cabin and driving dynamic improvements over the outgoing model.

Different design direction

With a more accessible and universal design, the new Sonata trades its predecessor’s ridged, wavy and concave grille and bonnet for a snouty, elegant and more formal hexagonal three-slat grille and slightly raised bonnet. Stretched sideways rather than upwards, the new Sonata’s headlights neatly trail to the glasshouse’s profile outline. A new and more aggressive bumper design features an upward tilt and larger intakes.

Little altered in general shape the new Sonata retains its predecessor’s rakish roofline and features a similarly strong ridge along its flank, which now runs level above the door handles rather than dramatically rising through the door handles.

More recognisable as evolutionary from the rear, the new Sonata’s rear lights are perhaps less moodily aggressive, but are now more sophisticated looking, with a thin segment extending inwards.

A smooth, flowing and classy looking mid-size family saloon, the new Hyundai Sonata is marginally larger but generates just CD0.27 of aerodynamic drag, which aids highway fuel efficiency and noise refinement. Under the skin, the new Sonata benefits from a greater use of high strength steel and body bracing which yields a 41 per cent increase in torsional rigidity. With a stiffer frame than before, the new Sonata’s frame contributes to improved ride refinement and handling precision.

Spacious seating

Smooth, stable and quiet at highway speeds, the new Sonata benefits from a large underbody cover for better airflow, while cabin refinement from noise vibration and harshness is terrific. The Sonata comfortably accommodates large and tall rear passengers who benefit from generous legroom, which compensates the rakishly low roofline and adequate — rather than generous — rear headroom. 

Front seats are comfortable, with rake and tilt steering adjustment providing a good driving position. An optional panoramic roof lends the low roof Sonata an airy feel, while a 462-litre boot is generous. Dashboard layouts are more aesthetically elegant than before, with a hexagonal centre stack reflecting the Sonata’s grille design. Materials and textures are also improved.

Well-kitted, the new Sonata comes with a wide range of standard and optional creature comforts, driver aids and safety systems, including standard A/C, keyless entry, steering wheel controls, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, child seat anchors, electric folding mirrors, ABS brakes, driver’s airbag and LED running and fog lights.

Optional equipment includes passenger and side airbags, electronic stability control, leather seats, heated and ventilated seats, climate control, blindspot detection system, electric rear and manual rear side curtains, rear view camera, parking assist system, and first in its segment, automatic hands-free boot opening. A choice of three infotainment systems is available, with 3.8- or 4.3-inch (9.65 or 10.92 cm) screens.

Smooth driving

With a choice of two- and 2.4-litre four-cylinder engines with multi-point fuel injection (MPI) in Jordan and gasoline direct fuel injection (GDI) in the US market — which also receives a more powerful two-litre turbo version — the driven 2.4 MPI develops 175BHP at 6,000rpm and 168lb/ft at 4,000rpm. 

Carried over from its predecessor, the new Sonata’s 2.4 MPI engine is smooth and well insulated from the cabin. Driving the front wheels and mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox with aggressive first and second gear ratios, the 2.4 MPI can carry the Sonata’s estimated 1,510kg mass to a 205km/h maximum and across the 0-100km/h dash in 9.9-seconds.

A smooth and refined engine and gearbox combination for daily town driving and highway commutes, the Sonata 2.4’s progressive delivers adequate mid-range torque and top-end power. Along the Irbid-Amman highway with its many steep inclines, the Sonata 2.4 made confident progress and maintained speeds well.

On such routes one is inclined to use the six-speed automatic’s lever-operated sequential shifts to hold the desired gears. With gearbox shifts designed for silky smooth operation rather than sporty or snappy operation, the Sonata however changes gears quick enough, and one can choose between three gearbox shift modes, including a sport mode more receptive to downshifting and holding gears longer for better responsiveness.

Refined ride

Accounting for 51 per cent of the new Sonata, Hyundai have increased the use of lighter but stiffer high strength steel by 30 per cent and comes in conjunction with improved bracing, subframe mounts and sound insulation for a combination of improvements in ride refinement, driving precision and safety, with the new Sonata being rated a Top Safety Pick+ by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

With its stiffer frame better allowing the suspension to do its job the new Sonata rides and handles better, while its MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension features revised geometry and redesigned lower suspension arms for improved precision and distribution of lateral forces.

Evolutionary and not revolutionary in driving dynamic, the new Sonata is however certainly an improvement. The strengthened chassis, reworked suspension and recalibrated steering translate into better steering precision and responsiveness through corners.

Body control through corners and the ability to fluidly process rough roads and undulations are also better. An improvement, the new Sonata is built for comfort and refinement and not as a sports saloon. The mid-size segment isn’t generally sports saloon territory, and for those seeking it, the Sonata offers improvement but firmer springs, dampers and rebound control, and sharper steering would be welcome.

However, for its extensive core family clientele, the Sonata’s dynamics, comfort, refinement, equipment and value are spot on.

Technical specifications

Engine: 2.4 litre, 16 valve, DOHC, transverse 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 88 x 97mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Gearbox: 6 speed automatic, front-wheel drive

Ratios: 1st 4.212; 2nd 2.637; 3rd 1.8; 4th 1.386; 5th 1.0; 6th 0.772

Final drive/reverse: 3.367:1/3.385

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 175 (178) [131] @ 6,000rpm

Specific power: 74BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 168 (228) @ 4,000rpm

Specific torque: 96.8Nm/litre

0-100 km/h: 9.9-seconds

Top speed: 205km/h

Fuel capacity: 70 litres

Length: 4,855mm

Width: 1,865mm

Height: 1,475mm

Wheelbase: 2,805mm

Tread, F/R: 1,602/1,607mm

Overhang, F/R: 965/1085mm

Ground clearance: 134mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.27

Legroom, F/R: 1,155/905mm

Headroom, F/R: 1,025/965mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,470/1,435mm

Boot capacity: 462 litres

Kerb weight: 1,510 (est.)

Suspension: MacPherson struts/Multi-link, stabilizer bars

Steering: Electric assistance, rack & pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.78 turns

Turning circle: 10.91 metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 304/discs, 284mm

Tyres: 215/55R17

The Umma and the Dawla: The Nation-State and the Arab Middle East

Tamim Al Barghouti

London: Pluto Press, 2008

Pp. 240

Tamim Al Barghouti has become very popular as a poet. In “The Umma and the Dawla”, he applies the analytical side of his intellect, but perhaps there is a connection. Besides creating beauty, good poets are exceptionally perceptive, enabling them to reveal the hidden essence of things. Moreover, in Islamic thought, there is a strong link between poetic beauty and truth, as evidenced in the Koran.

By revisiting Arab/Islamic history and the linguistic roots of pivotal terminology, Barghouti reaches conclusions that may be surprising to those, including this reviewer, who have approached modern Middle East history primarily through the lens of the confrontation between colonialism (imperialism) and Arab nationalism. While Barghouti’s view of colonialism is not surprising, his questioning of the roots and nature of nationalism runs counter to many other historical accounts, both Western and local.

This book has many themes and sub-themes, but can overall be seen as an attempt to clear up misunderstandings about Islam and Arab history, in order to explain why the present-day states in the Middle East have “failed to meet the challenge of Zionism, create some sort of Arab or Islamic unity, and achieve development and social justice.” (p. 1)

Among the misunderstandings is that the Arabic word “Umma” is usually understood to mean nation, while “Dawla” is translated as state, when, in fact, these two terms are quite different from their English counterparts. While a nation is assumed to have a racial component and “the state is the end, aim and purpose of the nation,” implying a stable arrangement and defined territory, “the Umma is non-territorial and non-racial” but rather composed of a group of people who adhere to a common belief, ideology, purpose and direction. (p. 36)

“Dawla”, on the other hand, “refers to any authoritative political arrangement. It is temporary, not territorially fixed and usually associated with the ruling elite.” (p. 57)

Thus, sovereignty, loyalty, ultimate authority and legitimacy are associated with the “Umma”, not the “Dawla”, and the latter is accountable to the former even if it does not rule over all its members. 

Roughly half the book covers how these two concepts evolved and were materialised from the early days of Islam until Ottoman times, and how this shaped people’s thinking and affects their behaviour up until today, including “the rise of non-territorial Muslim organisations in global politics”. (p. 77)

In describing indigenous, pre-colonial political culture, based on affiliation to the “Umma”, Barghouti shows that “religious feelings in the world of Islam cannot be separated from political affiliations.” (p. 196)

While differences between Christian sects arise from doctrinal or metaphysical disputes, those between Muslim sects arise from political disagreements.

The second half of the book covers the various types of nationalism practised in the region, whether local or pan-Arab, which in Barghouti’s analysis have no indigenous roots, but were derived from European sources, i.e., tied to the colonial discourse. As a result, “the theoreticians and politicians of such nationalist movements were continuously attempting to find a compromise that reconciles their nationalisms with the native sense of identity that revolves around the Umma.”(p. 77)

“The colonial redefinition of Arabs and Muslims into nation-states created a situation where Arabs and Muslims had two contradictory foci of loyalty” — the colonially imposed nation state and the “Umma”. (p. 67)

A historical review of events from Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt, to Bush’s invasion of Iraq, illustrates that the separate Arab states were doomed to fail, and even pan-Arab movements, such as Nasserism and the Baath, were unable to resolve the structural contradiction imposed by colonialism. It proved impossible to both fulfil their people’s needs and aspirations, and satisfy colonial demands, to be both legitimate and subordinate. This was especially true, because in addition to raw materials, “security has always featured strongly on [the colonial powers’] wish list when it came to the Middle East.” (p. 97)

Barghouti’s analysis is brilliant, objective and well documented; his arguments are persuasive, but in his dedication to exposing the colonial roots of nationalism, he borders on depriving Arabs of agency. Were not some of the secular and modern ideas associated with pan-Arab movements derived from indigenous experience? Nonetheless, for a book completed seven years ago, it is remarkably predictive.

The most recent events, which are erasing some colonial borders and reshuffling regional alliances, add credence to its overall analysis. Barghouti’s closing remarks are worth pondering: “My prediction is that the current war in the region, between the United States and various Islamic organisations, will have two results… First, it will end America’s unipolar control of the world, and second it will change Islam beyond recognition.” (p. 212)

SAN FRANCISCO — Allen Lau considers himself living proof that love of good writing is alive and well in the age of streaming video and terse text messages.

He offers as further evidence the 32 million people who each month visit online literature social network Wattpad, which he and Ivan Yuen launched eight years ago as an online venue for writers and readers to connect.

“Wattpad is the world’s largest community for reading and writing,” Lau told AFP during a recent visit to San Francisco to meet with investors in the Toronto-based start-up.

“We’ve created a mobile and social storytelling experience.”

Of the more than nine billion minutes spent monthly reading at Wattpad, about 85 per cent is done using smartphones or tablet computers, according to Lau.

More than a million Wattpad users are writers, who typically upload a chapter at a time while readers tune in the way they might watch episodes of a television series.

“We make story telling very different and unique,” Lau said.

Readers shape stories

Readers share feelings, thoughts and criticisms with one another and authors at the social network, sometimes shaping fates of characters or directions of stories.

“Writing and reading have traditionally been very solitary experiences,” Lau said.

“In this case, writers get constant feedback from readers in real time; and from the reader perspective it is almost like watching a TV show with 10 million people all at once.”

Readers are free to wait until books are complete and then binge on chapter after chapter, but that is rarely the case at Wattpad. The most common question fired off at the service was said to be “When will the next chapter be released?”

After Wattpad noticed writers providing links to music videos to listen to as background for reading, the social network added a way to embed YouTube clips.

“It has been so widely used, if you go to YouTube and search ‘Wattpad’ you will find millions of videos,” Lau said.

“The writing is the main actor, but we have supporting characters: video and sound.”

Wattpad sees a quarter of a million chapters uploaded daily, with about 24 hours worth of reading arriving at the service each minute.

Less than half the visits to Wattpad come from the United States, and the service is growing strong in an array of countries including Turkey, Italy, Britain and Spain.

“Not everyone has an e-book store, a library, or a regular book store, but everyone will be on the Internet and everyone will have a smartphone,” Lau reasoned.

“I am the walking proof that it is rubbish people aren’t reading as much; the Internet is helping people to read and write more.”

Writers find fame

The Wattpad mobile application is free, as is access to work uploaded by writers. More than half the stories on Wattpad were written on mobile devices.

Wattpad writers don’t get paid, but exposure at the social network provides opportunities for them to make money.

Publishing house Simon and Schuster gave Wattpad author Anna Todd a sizable advance to make a series of books out of “After” stories she wrote on her Android smartphone and uploaded to the social reading network, according to Lau.

Hundreds of writers reportedly have seen their work on Wattpad lead to traditional publishing deals.

In collaboration with USA Network, Wattpad has commissioned a writer to create prequel stories intended to promote a coming “Dig” television show.

“This is one of the first,” Lau said of the partnership.

“Whether a TV show or Starbucks, all good brands have good stories to tell. And where else can they tell their story but the world’s largest story-telling platform?”

While Wattpad remains focused on growth, not revenue, companies can sponsor stories at the network or commission writers to craft tales tied to brands.

Revenue from sponsorships is shared with writers, according to Wattpad.

Wattpad’s popularity has soared in the Philippines, where the first television adaptation of a story from the social network is heading for prime time television.

Books and films have also been made there from Wattpad works.

Apple Inc. broke its silence on complaints about bending iPhones, hours after withdrawing a glitch-ridden software update as the company struggles to restore momentum to the rollout of its latest phones.

“With normal use, a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in an e-mail.

Apple shares closed down nearly 4 per cent at $97.87 on Thursday, wiping out nearly $23 billion in market value.

The new phones face criticism over their bendability, dubbed “bendgate”. Social media and online forums have been abuzz with comments about how the new phones can bend when placed in back pockets or while wearing skinny jeans.

Apple said its iPhones feature stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high-stress locations and use the strongest glass in the smartphone industry.

The only way an iPhone may have bent is if someone put it in their back pocket and sat on the phone for a very long time, said Laban Roomes, chief executive officer of Goldgenie, which customises and gold plates iPhones.

Apple was also forced to withdraw a faulty update to its latest operating system after some users of its new phones complained of call service disruptions.

Apple released a new software update late on Thursday to fix the problems, which it said affected fewer than 40,000 devices.

“I do believe this speaks to execution issues at Apple,” said JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna. “At the end of the day I believe this too shall pass, but we are noting with concern that the miscues pile up.”

Apple said on Monday it had shipped 10 million units of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Users of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus also complained about the inability to use the fingerprint-reading Touch ID after updating to iOS 8.0.1.

Some users had complained of “sluggish Wi-Fi and dwindling battery life” after moving to iOS 8, Time magazine reported earlier this week.

On Thursday, Apple issued a step-by-step guide for users to reinstall iOS 8, launched last week, through the latest version of iTunes. The health app will not work for now and will be fixed in the next software update, the company said.

Customers might, however, hope for replacements for their bent iPhones, depending on whether their devices passed an inspection, tech news website the Next Web reported, quoting an Apple support executive.

“It’s not game over for Apple, but nor should we give them a pass on this,” Gauna said.

Cases of bent iPhones 5 and 5s had been reported in 2013 by Cult of Mac, a website that exclusively covers Apple.

Rival smartphone makers took digs at Apple’s problems.

A Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. advertisement showcased a bending phone against its own product, while BlackBerry Ltd CEO John Chen said: “I would challenge you guys to bend our Passport.”

Nestle SA’s Kit-Kat chocolate wafer brand tweeted “We don’t bend, we break.”